Herewith follows some short recommendations of short stories to be read on a holiday short or long.
• OH WHAT A PARADISE IT SEEMS by JOHN CHEEVER (Which is worth owning for the cover and title alone. These stories, and many more, can be found in the collected works, THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER, which is recommended by readers STEFAN HARHAY and WAYLON WOOD. To understand the man behind them, read CHEEVER: A LIFE by BLAKE BAILEY.)
• THE COLLECTED STORIES OF LYDIA DAVIS (Insanely short, insanely brilliant tales of human truth, with characters that are barely ever named – a total find.)
• LIKE YOU’D UNDERSTAND, ANYWAY by JIM SHEPARD (Super hot collection from 2007, SHEPHARD is an American writer with a sharp ear who’s worth discovering.)
• SIXTY STORIES by DONALD BARTHELME (Incomparable and odd brilliance from this former NEW YORKER contributor who died in 1989.)
• ELEPHANT AND OTHER STORIES by RAYMOND CARVER (As with CHEEVER, all of the stories are available in one solid tome called COLLECTED STORIES, but this book from late in his life is particularly exacting. Also worth reading is the recently released unedited early stories, published separately under the title BEGINNERS in the UK and included in the COLLECTED STORIES in the US.)
COMMENTS
World Man About Town:
And don’t forget to pack the Collected Short Stories by Lorrie Moore: perfect holiday reading!
Charles:
If you love Venice and/or gossipy, insider tales, the short stories by Jane Turner Rylands (a controversial lady, herself) are good fun. Featuring thinly disguised portraits of real people and events, it presents a cynical and wicked — but often genuinely touching — view of that most mysterious and sordid of cities. The first book is, *Venetian Stories*, and the second, which neatly picks up the threads of the stories woven in the first book, is, *Across the Bridge of Sighs*.
(For the scoop on the formidable authoress, herself, and her supposed attempts to steal the entire estate of a famous writer, read John Berendt’s gossipy pseudo-expose’, *The City of Falling Angels*.)
timothylupinek:
Jerzy Kosinski’s “Steps” is a very short, worthwhile read. It’s comprised of a series of vignettes that are loosely associated and may or may not be episodes in a single, unnamed character’s life. The novella is extremely erotic and sexual as well as violent, bizarre, and moving. I’ve read it 4 times and it never ceases to amaze me, especially the series of stories involving the man escaping a socialist regime in Eastern Europe (which Kosinski did himself), and the series involving the car racing at the end.
jimjam:
I am fining the next Fantastic Man, the next time he describes something as ‘super’ anything. It’s becoming superlative…(excessive)